McGraw-Hill Companies and Wipro Partner to Develop Affordable Mobile Learning Platform

While everyone deserves access to a quality education, due to financial or some other unfortunate circumstance, not all receive one. Today, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, global education and financial information leader, The McGraw-Hill Companies and Wipro, a leading technology solutions provider announced their new partnership to develop “an open-standard mobile learning platform. The aim of the new platform is to bridge the education gap between underserved rural or low-income communities.

Called mConnect, the platform will utilize mobile technologies including cell phones and laptops to deliver personalized educational and assessment programs. For example, people in non-English speaking countries that wish to learn the language can use mConnect instead of having to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to a university.

“Through advances in mobile learning, McGraw-Hill and Wipro have an unprecedented opportunity to deliver high-quality, low-cost education to students and workers in rural areas and cities with limited access to resources,” said Harold McGraw III, chairman, president and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

mConnect will have its first showing in India with the hope of extending the program to Africa and Asia. Previously, Black Web 2.0 has covered the growing impact mobile devices have had in both Africa and in the U.S. In Africa, we’ve seen phones used to organize protests, distribute aid, and maybe most importantly encourage further innovation. In American, African Americans outpace whites in mobile phone use and we are the most active users of the mobile Internet. Imagine how mConnect can supplement education for both populations.

“High-quality education is fundamental to the growth of a nation. We at Wipro are fully committed to launching the next generation of educational ideas and tools—leveraging the potential of our connected world—mobile devices, laptops, pads and other devices,” said Azim Premji, Chairman Wipro Ltd.

In addition to expanding educational tools for teacher and student alike, mConnect also has the following benefits:

• Bring learning directly to the student, thereby bridging the geographic distances between students and their schools
• Allow learners to study anywhere and at anytime, improving their ability to balance work and study
• Personalize and customize instruction by providing a means for teachers to provide relevant, individualized feedback to every student according to his ability to receive it both personally and technically
• Encourage feedback and early intervention by teachers
• Centralize curricula and ensure that content is continually updated
• Create a more engaging, interactive experience, which has been shown to foster better learning outcomes

• Bring learning directly to the student, thereby bridging the geographic distances between students and their schools
• Allow learners to study anywhere and at anytime, improving their ability to balance work and study
• Personalize and customize instruction by providing a means for teachers to provide relevant, individualized feedback to every student according to his ability to receive it both personally and technically
• Encourage feedback and early intervention by teachers
• Centralize curricula and ensure that content is continually updated
• Create a more engaging, interactive experience, which has been shown to foster better learning outcomes

About the Author
Sherri is a freelance writer that has a love of all things fun and geeky including gadgets, gaming, anime, and comics. When she isn't writing or out on the town living it up, she loves doing 10-12 hour marathon sessions on her Xbox 360 or one of her older consoles. It's not an addiction, it's a way of life!
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